Operation: Daddy
by Zoja
Summary: Sue is away for a week and Jack is left alone with their three young children. Is he going to manage, or it will all turn into a complete disaster?


**A/N: **I am so happy I managed to finish it before leaving for holidays! It's set in the same universe as my other story "Worst Experience", between the last chapter and an epilogue. I don't think it's necessary to read it before this one, but it may be useful. I hope you're going to like this little crazy story! :)

With dedication to _fanka77,_ whose mention of Jack as a dad gave me the idea for this story. Dziękuję :-D

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There was nothing he wished more, but to have his wife back, but it wasn't going to happen until the end of the week. Sue has gone to his brother, after he begged her for almost half an hour, to help him with two of his children while his wife was at the hospital to give birth to their third one. She wasn't very eager to do that, she didn't really want to leave her own children and she was also a little afraid of how Jack will manage to take care of them without her help for the whole week. She couldn't say anything bad about him in the role of a father; he was loving, attentive, caring, protective, always helped her with everything if he could. Working in the FBI didn't allow him to spend as much time with them as he wanted, but every day after he came home, no matter how exhausted he wouldn't be, he always spent the rest of the day with them. These were moments when she could practically forget she had children, as they always enjoyed having their dad for themselves. She knew, however, what they were capable of – especially in the morning – and it was what worried her the most.

He took the week off, so at least work wasn't something he had to think about. He quickly realised why Sue was so hesitant to leave them – his children in the morning were turning into little devils. He had absolutely no idea how Sue was able to manage to do anything with them, and even more so more or less according to the loose schedule. He had already his three tries and they were all complete disasters. As for now, he had to drive Chris to school every day, because the boy was missing the school bus, which wouldn't be bad if Jack didn't forget his bag and had to come back to school, and interrupt the lesson to give it to him after Chris already heard the lecture of how he should always bring his things with himself. Alex was being his fussy, moody self and even though it was okay on Monday, on Tuesday he started to ask for his mommy all the time and wasn't happy to see that she wasn't going to come to him. Sue was the only person, who could really handle his moods and make him happy, just like Jack was with Sarah. The girl, however, wasn't really pleased either and he had to admit that he would be too, if his dad took him to the car in his pyjamas, and then made him walk through the school corridors in them. It was all because his little girl – just like him – wasn't a very morning person and was still asleep, when they had to leave so Chris won't be late for school. And even though he tried his best, it was all turning into a huge disaster. He was never the kind of man, who didn't appreciate his wife's efforts of taking care of the house and children, but he was now starting to admire Sue more than ever.

He was now half-lying on the couch in the living room, enjoying the silence surrounding him as Chris was still at school, Alex was napping and Sarah was sitting by the table and drawing, the sound of crayons against the sheet of paper was the only sound in the room. He watched the girl, waiting for painkillers to start to work; for almost an hour he was fighting with Alex to eat, and trying to calm down his screaming for Sue. He knew the boy missed her and couldn't understand why she suddenly disappeared, but he was really getting to know why his wife sometimes called their youngest child their little terrorist.

He hated even the thought of the dinner, during the past two days it turned out to be yet another disaster on the list. On Monday he completely burnt the meat, and yesterday he added way too much salt and it was completely inedible. Chris and Sarah weren't complaining about pizza, and they also ate the scrambled eggs, but he had to think of something for Alex, who was of course also horribly fussy when it came to food. Today he planned to prepare the macaroni and cheese, and really hoped he wasn't going to screw the dinner up, _again_. Luckily, he didn't, and he definitely swell with pride, when Chris and Sarah even complimented the dish.

Chances to make everything up to his children appeared soon. In the evening, when Alex just didn't want to go to sleep, shouting for his mother all the time, he got a _brilliant_ idea. He had no idea how he didn't think of it earlier, especially that he talked to Sue every day, and just dialled her number. Even though it wasn't the same, the boy calmed himself down a little thanks to hearing his mom's voice, and allowed Jack to take care of him. Christopher approached him after school on the next day after eating dinner and finishing the homework. He explained that the local soccer team is holding tryouts for the youngest team and he asked if he could try. Jack has never really been a fan of soccer, but doing sports was something he definitely wasn't going to tell his son not to, even though he didn't like the sport. After he agreed, Chris looked like the happiest of children, jumped into his arms, hugged him tightly and told him that he's the best dad. Jack thought it was a huge exaggeration, but definitely wasn't going to complain.

His moment with Sarah he got after they came back from a walk, and Alex was napping. Jack would have to be blind not to notice that something happened on the playground, because one moment she was playing in the sandpit, and the other approached him and asked if they could go home. As much as he hated it, he knew that other children were often making fun of her, especially of the way she was speaking. She was making a very good progress, and her speech therapist was very happy with it, but for small children she was just speaking funny. They also accused her of not listening to what they say to her, and her explanation that she couldn't hear wasn't helping at all. It made Sarah close herself a little to other children, but it also always made her horribly sad when they were making fun of her.

She was sitting on her bed, hugging her teddy bear when he walked into the room, sat on the bed and placed her on his lap. It was a trigger for her tears to fall and she just snuggled to his chest, sobbing while he held her, rocking her slightly and caressing her hair. She calmed herself after a moment, but they just stayed like that for a longer moment, like they always did when she needed comforting. She was a daddy's girl, was much closer with Jack than she was with Sue, and every time she wanted something from her parent, she went to him first. She also always opened to him, even though she didn't want to open herself to Sue, so they shared quite a few moments like this one.

"I love you, Daddy." she said, when she moved away and kissed his cheek. "**You are great, don't worry.**"

When only Levi and Sue appeared in the arrival's hall on Friday, they were greeted by four very happy Hudsons. Chris and Sarah immediately ran to hug her, and when Jack passed Alex to her, the boy just clung to her and didn't want to let her go. She couldn't even give her husband a proper hug before they were home – which she was delighted to find in one piece - and their youngest child was asleep. By the time it happened, Jack put Chris and Sarah to bed, and she wrapped her arms around his waist, rested her cheek against his chest and closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of his hands caressing her back, his smell around her, the closeness between them.

"I see you did quite well." she said, when they were getting ready to go to sleep by themselves.

"I managed, _somehow_. I just don't know how you do it every day... You must be making miracles!"

"No, I just have a lot of practice. Besides, I had the opportunity to gradually fall into the routine with them, and you just got all three of them at the same time, so it's not the same."

"I still feel horrible... I'm their father and this week was a disaster!"

"Jack, I'm sure you were great. You are a wonderful father, you're the best dad I know and I am lucky that I get to have you as a partner in bringing them up."

"And we are all lucky to have you. I just don't know what I would do without you."

He slipped under the duvet, wrapped his arms around her and leaned in to kiss her. Oh, just how much he missed her. He may have managed to survive the week without it turning into a huge, complete disaster, but he just needed her in his life. In fact, all four Hudsons needed her, she was their balance, solid ground and everything else.

In spite of all, when he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, he mentally marked the Operation: Daddy as complete.


End file.
